George Osborne's Autumn Statement means the young will work for years longer –
but it was always going to happen, says Tom Harris.

Like everyone else in the country, the Government’s announcement on the retirement age caused me immediately to reflect on the recent celebrations of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary.

No? Well, bear with me.

The retirement age, or at least the age at which you will be able to claim a state pension, was already due to rise to 66 by 2020 and to 67 by 2028. Now the Chancellor has announced that those in their forties and below can expect to retire even later – 68 by the year 2046.

Now, as I write, I have no idea of the anger and opprobrium that will be heaped upon poor old George for this theft of our old age, this disgraceful con of a whole generation of – wait for it – hard-working people. But whatever the response from the permanently and professionally indignant, can we press the fast-forward button? Can we just accept that this was an inevitable move that would, without the shadow of the most meagre doubt, have been announced and implemented by whichever party happened to be in government?

And now the Doctor Who bit…

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David Bradley is a well-known character actor who actually appeared as a villain in the recent Doctor Who adventure, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", which was about… well, you can probably guess. When the BBC commissioned a drama about how the very first season of the show was made in 1963, a kind of show within a show, they chose Bradley to portray William Hartnell, the first actor to play the eponymous hero.

But here’s the thing: Bradley is 71 years old. And the character he portrayed so magnificently, so accurately, was just shy of his 56th birthday when he first stepped into the Tardis. But no one would suggest Bradley was too old to play Hartnell.

Here’s another thing. On Christmas day in about three weeks’ time (that scared you a bit, didn’t it?), Peter Capaldi will assume the role. Peter Capaldi is the same age that Hartnell was when he took over.

Scary as that sounds, there’s no need to hide behind the sofa. People today are younger than people of the same age were 50 years ago. Okay, the whole Doctor Who thing isn’t very scientific and yes, I just wanted an excuse to write about the anniversary somewhere in the Telegraph. But the plain truth is that, obesity, cancer rates and diet notwithstanding, we are healthier, younger-looking and living longer than at any time in our history.

There’s also the shadow of the much-heralded “demographic time bomb” to consider: an ageing population, historically low birth rates and a potentially disastrous impact on the size of our workforce and, therefore, revenue to the Treasury. It’s long been accepted that encouraging older people to extend their working lives – people with experience and a proven work ethic – is at least part of the solution. Only now it’s less encouragement than threats. But heigh-ho! That’s politics for you.

The rest of the Autumn statement was an odd mixture of grand projets and a B&Q shopping list: scrapping of tax discs for cars, selling off Eurostar, refurbishment of school kitchens and a railway station, a new conservatory for Mrs Edna Bradley of Crewe… (One of those is made up).

But it’s the retirement announcement that will hit the headlines – that is, unless the latest sneaky announcement on Universal Credit doesn’t lead directly to the renaming of the Department of Work and Pensions as “The Crazy World of IDS”.

As someone just three months short of his 50th birthday, I’m not entirely sure if today’s announcement will have a direct impact on my own retirement age. The tolerance of my party and my constituents might well be tested to the full.

Alternatively, Capaldi’s not going to stay in that role forever, is he…?